Group blasts state's voter registration efforts

AUSTIN - A civil rights group on Monday accused state officials - namely Secretary of State John Steen - of systematically failing to educate and encourage Texans to vote.

A report from the Texas Civil Rights Project concludes the state is doing little to promote voter registration opportunities and, in some instances, is not enforcing laws designed to enhance turnout.

The report cites a survey of public schools conducted by the Austin-based group that showed school districts across the state failed to give eligible students voter registration forms at least twice a year as required by law. It also points the finger at several state agencies for not upholding their state-mandated duty to provide voter registration forms to Texans with whom they come in contact.

Another chief issue, according to the report: Texas' county-by-county variance of rules to qualify as a voter registrar. The civil rights group says the current process, which it describes as a "decentralized patchwork," hinders voter registration.

"This sort of goes back to the way it used to be before the Voting Rights Act, but it's nowhere as brutal or as obvious," said James Harrington,Texas Civil Rights Project's director, citing landmark civil rights law from 1965. "But it has exactly the same effect that is discouraging and effectively disenfranchising people."

The report did not cite specific instances of disenfranchisement or people getting turned away at the polls.

Texas long has been accused of voter suppression and legal challenges to changes in state election law have become common.

A newly enacted voter ID law is pending before a federal court, as is a legal challenge to state and congressional redistricting maps.

Official called out

Harrington said much of the blame for the state's voter registration problems can be pegged to Steen, the state's chief election officer, and a lack of caring "about having as many people vote as possible."

"You notice a very pronounced lack of leadership," Harrington said of Steen.

Steen announced last week he would step down in January after a year on the job and after a 2012 election cycle in which a record number of Texans, some 13.6 million, registered to vote.

In November, Steen's office touted a big jump in voter turnout from the last constitutional amendment election in 2011 to this year.

"While our office has not yet seen the report, we are always willing to work with interested groups to improve the voter registration process," said Alicia Pierce, a Steen spokeswoman, who noted that her office does not have enforcement power to compel other state agencies to follow Texas' election code.

Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart, who oversees local elections but not voter registration, agreed turnout could be improved, but questioned whether the job should fall to government officials often strapped for resources.

"Is it really government's responsibility to target people to increase turnout? Do we really want government trying to pick who they get the message to?" Stanart asked. "You don't want government trying to pick winners and losers."

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Mike Sullivan, who manages voter registration, declined comment until he had read the report.

HISD is 'proactive'

Houston Independent School District spokeswoman Denise Cantu said late Monday she was not familiar with how often schools helped register eligible students, the number of whom grew from about 4,400 in fall 2012, to 11,000 by spring graduation.

"HISD is definitely proactive about encouraging students to register," she said.

Cantu noted more than 1,000 students were registered to vote during a 2012 event created, in part, to raise awareness of an HISD bond issue and that all high school principals were deputized as voter registrars.

The rights organization made several recommendations for changes to the state's election law.

Some of the proposed changes include streamlining the voter registrar process; requiring state education officials to enforce voter registration responsibilities; and urging the secretary of state to become more pro-active in helping get out the vote.

"We see this as a step off to pushing for some legislative change," Harrington said, "and, hopefully, getting the secretary of state more interested in getting people to vote."